XboxEra's Reviews
RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business is a solid step-up from the original, though performance on Xbox is a bit rough.
Shadow Labyrinth is a solid 2D Metroidvania and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Its edginess has a lot of spunk and charm, level design is solid, platforming is varied, and progression is paced well. If you dig the idea of PAC-MAN eating people as you explore a world purveyed in turmoil, this one’s worth checking out. ∎
Eriksholm is a tough game to fully review, as giving away the gameplay mechanics and plot elements that made me enjoy it should be experienced without spoilers. If you have the time, in this never-ending deluge of excellent games, consider adding this one to the backlog. It’s fun and not frustrating stealth and shockingly high production values make this one of my favorite surprises of the year.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 is a brilliant package only marred by a loss of 4's story mode charm.
How I feel about Missile Command Delta is messy, because there are neat ideas here, mostly to be found within in the actual missile-commanding part of the game. The rest becomes more than a little tedious and while I admire the approach of doing something a little different, I can’t help but feel the whole package feels burdened by the narrative additions, and sadly those parts are not a lot of fun to play through. Unless you’re a massive lapsed Missile Command/Atari fan, I’d maybe let another cadet take your place.
Yearly sports titles tend to be small upgrades. College Football 26 is different, as CF25 set the groundwork after over a decade away. ’26 takes a more-is-better approach and smashes it. This is one of the best-playing and most realistic-feeling college sports titles I have ever played.
System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Edition is a solid upgrade for an all-time classic. While I didn’t personally get to test it, the thought of playing the title with friends in co-op sounds amazing, and the full mod support built into the game on PC should lead to some crazy scenarios.
Ruffy’s adventure has enough spins on the formula to stand out, especially the creative swap mechanic and some ideas beyond the opening levels, but I feel like there’s a lot of unforced errors in this title, which made me not enjoy myself as much as I hoped I would.
I can’t help but thoroughly recommend I Am Your Beast. It’s a neatly designed, satisfying game that combines the addiction of great ‘one-more-go’ titles with some solid, satisfying gunplay, all wrapped up with a surprisingly engaging narrative to help keep you invested. If you’ve ever had the urge to indulge in a secret-agent-revenge-fantasy, consider that itch thoroughly scratched.
Soulstone Survivors was already great in its first Early Access version in 2022, and its 1.0 launch in 2025 is an unmissable bullet heaven experience today; one that anyone with even a passing interest in the genre should check out, and one that already reserves itself a high spot in my yearly top 10 games of the year, surely.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is a decent game. The Casey Jones & the Junkyard Jam DLC is worth it if you’re interested in the base title, though I’d only give it a full recommendation if you have a friend or three to play with.
In the end Sloclap has unintentionally put a lot of roadblocks in the way of both your ability to enjoy and desire to purchase Rematch, but behind all that is one of the best feeling soccer games ever made waiting to blossom and be discovered, as long as you can see past those roadblocks and don’t mind paying up front for the potential this game has for the future.
Splitgate 2 is solid mechanically but underwhelming in nearly every other area. For a sequel, a game that the studio had to stop all production of the first game to focus on, it doesn’t seem to do much more to improve on the original.
Still Wakes the Deep was an incredible game. Siren’s Rest shows the aftermath and how it affected at least one family. For $13, I think it’s well worth checking out for anyone who’s beaten the main game.
Control was a 9, and Alan Wake 2 was a 10 for me. I love Remedy’s games, normally, FBC Firebreak seems to have lost their usual magic in a search for a wider audience. I get it, but I do not like it, and I think it hurts the title in the long run.
our De France 2025 is a game that is targeted at hardcore fans of this unique discipline, who will likely close an eye on many shortcomings in the presentation and gameplay departments.
. It perfectly captures the essence of the TRON audiovisual experience, without overstaying its welcome, taking me just about 10 hours to finish. It has a satisfying, if rather formulaic, ARPG combat loop
FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a lot of fun! There’s plenty of things to do and they all play into one-another quite well. It’s not a slow-life game by any stretch of the mean, but it is a grindy one and any grindy game that manages to actually pull me back in post review obligations deserves nothing more than a hearty recommendation from me. ■
I think Disney Illusion Island is built on a solid foundation, but sadly everything around it (be it level design, art, and objectives) are underwhelming. This is a game for the Disney faithful at best, because even for young children, there are an overwhelming amount of fantastic 2D Metroidvania titles to choose from. Unless you really like Donald Duck (and I solemnly raise my hand for the walking TNT box!), Illusion Island likely isn’t going to be worth your time. ■
This trilogy of somewhat forgotten 90’s platformers are certainly a bit hit and miss – outdated but still often effective humor, a unique but often somewhat clunky gameplay, with even some unexpected narratives and lots of voiceovers and cameos to boot.